Estimating the Costs of Educating Handicapped Children: A Resource-Cost Model Approach. Final Report.

Hartman, William T.

The research described in this report attempts to estimate the costs of providing an appropriate education to all school-aged handicapped children by 1980-81. The study begins by addressing the aspects of special education that will help to predict future costs--patterns of growth to the present, legal and political mandates, the nature of various handicapping conditions, and the range of programs and services for handicapped children. Two different economic approaches to cost estimation are analyzed. The report then summarizes the available information concerning the costs of special education and presents a particular approach to special education cost estimation, known as the resource-cost model approach. Data to operate the resource-cost model for national cost projections are established, and the results of the model's projections of the national costs of special education are presented. Sensitivity analyses for each of the model's variables are conducted. Following the conclusions of the study are a discussion of the policy implications of the results and suggestions for further research in the area. (Author/MLF)